Wednesday Bolts – 7.29.09

I just CANNOT get over Kevin Durant’s humility. After Sam Smith said he may be better than LeBron yesterday, Durant tweeted, “MAN Y PEOPLE KEEP SAYIN THAT..IM NOT NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS LEBRON MAN.” And this morning he said, “STOP COMPARING ME TO BRON…HES ON ANOTHER LEVEL!! CMON PEOPLE..BE SERIOUS.” That just blows me away. Before you just take that for granted, think about it for a second. How many professional athletes would say stuff like that and not jump all over someone calling him the best? Not many, right? I need a tattoo on my face that says, “I heart KD.”

Darnell Mayberry’s take on it: “I chalk up Durant’s response as yet another sign of his humbleness and respect for the league and one of the game’s best. Also, I think Durant attacks his forthcoming ascent in a very practical manner. He realizes he has the gifts to develop into one of the most unique players the league has ever seen. But he’s more focused on the work it will take to earn having his name mentioned in the same breath of LeBron rather than simply accepting the acclaim with which media and fans already want to anoint upon him.”

Patrick Cassidy of Dime on it: “Naturally, my first reaction was “Sam, GTFOH.” There is part of me though, that gets what he’s saying. KD is a beast, and all signs point to him being an absolute monster this season as the best player on one of the League’s rising young squads. The fact that he’s 6-10, has range for days, and can play multiple positions makes him a serious weapon – but he’s not the athlete that LeBron is, he’s nowhere near as explosive or powerful, and struggles guarding smaller, faster players.”

Mayberry also looked at KD’s upcoming contract situation: “In short, players like Durant just don’t walk after their rookie contracts. Whether we believe Durant will do what he’s repeatedly said he wants to do — remain with the Thunder for as long as possible — is up to us at this point. It’s certainly understandable how fans and media types have revoked the benefit of the doubt from athletes and coaches. There are far too many examples of a player or coach insisting his or her heart is somewhere only to jump ship weeks later. But if Durant’s good old-fashioned word isn’t enough, let’s examine history. Out of 70 top 10 picks from 1999-2005, 40 players went on to sign an extension with the team that drafted them or the club that traded for them.”

Scott Howard-Cooper of SI with some nice things to say about the Thunder and James Harden: “Slowly, but absolutely surely, the Thunder continue to gain on the pack in the West, now with a new reason to be very encouraged about the future. That’s in case it isn’t enough that Kevin Durant is beginning to touch stardom, that Russell Westbrook needs months, rather than years, to become a starting point guard and the Thunder establishing themselves as one of the best rebounding teams in the league. The post-summer league scouting report from one opposing personnel boss is that “James Harden is as solid as they get. He’s got 20-point scorer written all over him.” Said another: “NBA skills and NBA mind.” Meaning the No. 3 pick in the June draft, a shooting guard from Arizona State, is tracking toward an immediate and significant contribution despite flying under the radar of the likes of Blake Griffin, Hasheem Thabeet, Tyreke Evans, Jonny Flynn and Rubio. As the others have been praised and dissected, Harden quietly has established a game that is much more a statement on dependability than flash. He was always one of the most NBA-ready players available and just happened to be a perfect position fit for the Thunder. Playing next to Westbrook, Harden should offer Oklahoma City a secondary ball handler capable of scoring at a level to make him a perfect complementary threat for Durant and deliver the offensive boost the Thunder needs.”

The Pacers officially signed Earl Watson and evidently it’s a one-year, $2.8M deal. Good for Earl.

Steve H :I was skimming through Huffingtonpost.com at work today and came across an article on race relations entitled “Can prejudice be justified?”(sorry, don’t know how to do the link thingy). The article was both thoughtful and extremely well written, and authored by the Thunder’s very own Etan Thomas. A couple of Bolts back I commented on how our team really needed a bad-assed, physical “Mongo” of a center, and that I thought Thomas should be able to play that role for us in the short-term. I still like the image evoked by the name “Mongo” as describing the roll that needs to get filled to take us to the next level, but I’m now leaning towards referring to Thomas as “Dr. Mongo” from here on out. Our new “Mongo” is obviously wicked smart.

I agree, every team could benefit from a "mongo" type of player; an enforcer, a generally tough SOB every now and then. The old Sonics had Danny Fortson in '05, and Frank Brickowski in '96 in the finals to beat up on Rodman. But the whole Mongo thing falls flat if Etan is intelligent and sensitive and poetic....and a liberal.....

@DooneyWell, I don't know. Having met Earl several times, I'm actually a pretty big fan of his, but as far as the popular view of him goes, yes you're correct. He was disgruntled, basically since we moved from Seattle, and not getting to play didn't help much. I could see how that kind of attitude wouldn't get him very far in this organization.

It's too bad. He'll do well somewhere, and he always treated me with a lot of respect in our dealings.

I was skimming through Huffingtonpost.com at work today and came across an article on race relations entitled "Can prejudice be justified?"(sorry, don't know how to do the link thingy). The article was both thoughtful and extremely well written, and authored by the Thunder's very own Etan Thomas. A couple of Bolts back I commented on how our team really needed a bad-assed, physical "Mongo" of a center, and that I thought Thomas should be able to play that role for us in the short-term. I still like the image evoked by the name "Mongo" as describing the roll that needs to get filled to take us to the next level, but I'm now leaning towards referring to Thomas as "Dr. Mongo" from here on out. Our new "Mongo" is obviously wicked smart.

OK, before I get thrown off the blog, I want to clarify that I meant that KD's style is more like Jordan's than Lebron's. Jordan had 3 seasons during which he avg over 6 assists and 3 years in which he avg over 7 rebounds. While James has been avg over 7 rebounds and 7 assists the last 3 years. Durant is a SF that plays more like a SG, Lebron is a SF that plays more like a PF, and Jordan was a SG that played more like a SF, he didn't have a great 3pt% (32%) for his career. So instead of comparing KD to Lebron, he should be compared with Jordan because their styles are much more alike. I would like to point out that KD shot over 40% from behind the arc, something neither of them did/are doing.

Kevin Durant will never be as good as Lebron James, he doesn't have the playmaking ability that Lebron has and that's what really sets Lebron apart from your run of the mill small forward. Lebron's also a vastly superior defender, KD's a pylon right now on defense (though probably is likely to improve in this area).

Oranges cannot be put into a pie. This is really the most important thing a fruit needs to be able to do. Otherwise, I wouldn't really consider an orange a pure fruit, anymore than I would RW a pure PG. ;)

@NixPreposterous, anyone in their right mind knows apples are ten times better than oranges! I'll call in experts, former apple and orange pickers past their primes. I'll call in previous farm managers. I'll get retailers on the phone and talk economics!

And then we'll put it all on ESPN... hosted by former stars who can scarcely read their cue cards.

People will call me crazy for this but what the hay. In those clips I saw a CP3 look-a-like. I know that RW probably won't ever be an exact replica of CP3, but the way he looked to pass first instead of shoot first in that video and how he kept looking for a pass after getting past the frontline. It feels great to be the hometown of this one-of-a-kind team.

These player A is better than player B discussions wear me out. Before you can even compare them, you have to define "better". Since no one can ever fully agree, there's no reason to go any further. If you do, you're just comparing apples and oranges, and if you ever start doing that, you'll never stop, because there is no way to do it. Then you just settle on agreeing to disagree, but even that's silly. You can't even tell if you disagree when you're comparing apples and oranges. You're not even arguing about the same thing in the first place.

KD will figure out that people just talk a lot, and it doesn't mean anything. Reading his twitter I can tell he was upset for a bit, but then figured out that it's just best to walk away and let the talking heads talk.

@DanJordan was much more of an all-around player than KD. But I don't really compare Lebron to Jordan anyway. I think Lebron is more like Magic than Jordan. Magic was a physical freak who could dominate any position on the floor, just like Lebron. Jordan didn't have the size of those guys, and so could only feasibly play guard.

I'd say right now Kobe and Carmelo are the best comparisons for KD. Both aren't terribly versatile, but both can put up huge points, contribute on the boards and in assists a bit, and carry a team. But even those two are currently above KD. Melo has the body and grit to do what KD can't down low. Kobe has the defense. They are all similar, but KD still has some growing to do.

@RoyceWhy didn't Earl get bought out instead of waived? I mean, if he had any inkling that he could get a deal in the range he did, wouldn't he probably have been bought out at a discount? We are still on the hook for his salary (per NBA waiver rules), so why didn't Presti work something out with Indy (or wherever), and try to get Earl bought out and save 1-2 million?

As much as I love KD, any real NBA fan knows the camparison between Lebron and KD isn't even close right now. If KD can become a better defender and gain atleast 20 pounds of muscle, and like someone said previously develop better court vision, KD would definitely be a better player.@ DanCome on man, you really speaking blasphemy, if in your view Lebron is better than Jordan right now? Heck he's still running a close race with Kobe.

KD will be a better scored than Lebron, Lebron came into the league with an nba body, durant still has a high school like body, durant averaged over 30 points in feb while green and westbrook were averaging 20 themselves. So its not hard to project KD as a better scorer. But Lebron has such a well rounded game, including good defense. I would compare KD to Jordan before I compare him to lebron.

Durant's an awesome player. I don't think it's humility though, it's him realizing the truth. He needs to learn some better D to get to LeBron's tier. Perhaps it'll come with time - LeBron took a few years too.

Still would rather see Rubio. I watched too many Pac-10 games to know what Harden is like. Him and Glasser were thugs. Can't respect that.

My thoughts on the KD v. Lebron thing are thus: Lebron is very much the better player right now, KD has the potential to be better at his specific position. That is to say, Lebron would be a top 2 player at any position on the court, and is limited only be his shooting. KD could be the best SF of all time, but does not have near the versatility of Lebron. KD can't check speedy guards or bang with strong bigs. Nor can he really run an offense at this point. In time, however, KD could do what Lebron does at SF while also being a better shooter.

That said, KD would need to significantly improve his court vision and passing before he even has the chance to catch up to Lebron.

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